New Women of Arabia at the New Museum of New York

ARTNEWS
By Lilly Wei

Boushra Almutawakel’s series “Mother, Daughter, Doll” (2000) challenges Western conceptions of
the hijab.©BOUSHRA ALMUTAWAKEL/COURTESY HOWARD GREENBERG GALLERY, NEW YORK

NEW YORK---Remarkable in its breadth and depth, the recent exhibition “Here and Elsewhere” at the New Museum offered New York its first comprehensive survey of contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa. Even more remarkable, of the 45-plus artists on view, many shown for the first time in the United States (although they’ve often appeared in international exhibitions and biennials, including Documenta, Venice, São Paulo, and Sharjah)—almost half were women. It’s a percentage, still rarely mustered in major exhibitions in the United States or elsewhere, that raises a number of questions. [link]